Dolorosa
by bootybertholdt
Summary: Shinobi Rule Number 25: A shinobi must never show their tears. However, sometimes they're necessary.


**_Summary_:** Shinobi Rule Number 25: A shinobi must never show their tears. However, sometimes they're necessary.

**_Notes:_ **Another angsty one-shot from me even though I said the next thing I would publish would be a multi-chaptered story (but I'm working on it, slowly but surely). Thanks to ever-fab Zoey (like always) for talking to me super late at night (at least on my side of the US) and squealing over shower scenes that are filled with angst and heartache. We shall rule the world one day, darling.

* * *

Haruno Sakura was exhausted.

As she dragged herself up the last flight of stairs to her apartment, the medic wearily fished her keys out of her bag and unlocked the door. Dropping all of her stuff at the entrance, she kicked her shoes off and softly padded down the hallway.

Sakura slumped onto the beige wall, trying to hold back the stinging tears that were threatening to escape. Clenching her eyes shut, she was bombarded by images of cold, lifeless bodies and spilled warm scarlet staining the pristine white sheets, curtains, everything.

Letting her body jerkily slide down until it rested on the soft carpet, the kunoichi buried her face into her hands and let her tears roll freely down her face. Watching as the droplets landed on her thighs, Sakura felt her entire body shaking with her sobs.

Sakura thought that after years of looking death right in the face she would have been used to its suffocating grip and unforgiving wrath. She shouldn't be this affected by the death of that team. But they were so young and they had their entire lives ahead of them. And yet, they were sucked into the dark void, never to come out again. They would never know what it's like to become Jounin, never experience the tender moments of a first relationship. They would never find the one person they wanted to share their entire life with. Instead, their friends and family were left with mere memories of them; forced to only remember what it felt like to hold them in their arms.

Swiping at the flowing tears with her arm, Sakura pushed herself off of the ground and blindly made her way to the bathroom. Turning the faucet on to its highest setting, she allowed the steam from the shower to fill the room before she stepped in fully clothed. The scalding rivulets of water pounded on the medic's shaking form as she reached for her soap.

Scrubbing the bar between her hands, the kunoichi watched as bubbles began to form and hid the dark red stains of blood left from her hours of work. So much time spent on trying to save them, but in the end, she wasn't strong enough. Oh god, why wasn't she strong enough? Letting the water flow over her fingers, dull green eyes peered at overturned palms, imagining dark red stains marring porcelain skin.

Grabbing a rag, the medic began to vigorously scrub at the spots, causing pale, pale hands to bloom into pink and red. Falling down on to the slippery floor of the shower, Sakura allowed the spray of water to completely soak her form as she continued the assault on her upper arms. Feeling the stinging of her raw skin, the kunoichi darkly thought that this was only a fraction of the pain that the young team had felt. There had been so much blood on such young kids, hearts stopped forever at the short age of fourteen.

Taking the heavy rag into her other hand, Sakura made to begin rubbing the opposite arm, but was stopped by the opening of the curtain. Peering through blurry eyes—both from her tears and the unrelenting streams of the shower—, she saw the large outline of her teammate, who promptly turned off the water and lifted her up.

Resting in his muscular arms, the medic's small body continued to quake as she felt herself being moved into her bedroom. Turning her head from his body, she peered upwards and was met with intense onyx staring down at her.

All of a sudden, Sakura felt immensely ashamed. Why was he looking at her like that? Like he was overcome with concern and fear for her? Her heart began to ache from the emotions she saw in those dark eyes. She had never meant to make him worry. This was her burden, and hers alone. Looking down to escape his gaze, Sakura licked her lips and shifted in his arms.

"Sasuke-kun…"

The young shinobi set his teammate down on her bed and squatted in front of her bowed form. Tenderly cupping her face with a calloused hand, he lightly pushed against her cheek until she was facing him. Sweeping under her tired eyes with his thumb, Sasuke let out a deep breath and straightened up, heading back towards the foggy bathroom. Coming back with a towel in his hand, he placed it on her head and began to rub it around her pink locks, removing the water from them.

Grabbing the medic's shoulders, the Uchiha forced her up so that he could begin to remove her soaked clothing and replace it with an oversized shirt he found in her drawer. Gently taking the edges of her red top, he pulled it over her head and quickly wiped at the water on her exposed skin. Lightly pushing her to sit on the bed, he wordlessly removed her spandex shorts and straightened out her legs to remove all of the droplets. Bringing the towel back up to dry her face, he grabbed the navy shirt he had found and covered the medic's petite body in its rippling depths.

Sakura wordlessly let him strip her down, eyes downcast at their feet sinking into her plush carpet. Seeing her teammate's sandals walk from her view, she took a shaky breath and raised her head. She watched as he collected her wet clothes and made his way to her washing machine. As she walked into the living room— she just _had _to get away from the smell of the blood—she found her eyes trailing to the laundry room closet to look up at the back of his head, staring at his raven locks until they were abruptly replaced with inky eyes.

There it was again, that pang in her chest. But this time it wasn't sadness for the deaths she had witnessed. Instead it was for the man in front of her, the man who had so tenderly taken care of her and was now watching her, eyes narrowing in worry.

"Sakura, what happened?"

When had Sasuke gotten so close? When had she been pulled into his arms?

"Just the deaths of three chuunin. I should be used to it by now, right, Sasuke-kun?" The medic hid her face in her teammate's chest, breathing in his musky scent. "I mean, I'm a shinobi. This is a part of my life."

"Hn." Sasuke tightened his hold on the small girl. "But you're also a medic, so you're used to saving people."

He didn't have to ask; Sasuke could tell from the look in her pretty green eyes that she was shattered inside. Despite putting up the façade that she was a strong, mature kunoichi all the time— which she was—, she was still only a human being and she still felt grief when faced with death. However, Sakura, as a typical shinobi, refused to let her weaknesses show, even when they were eating her inside out.

The kunoichi grasped at Sasuke's shirt, burrowing her face deep into his neck as she clenched her eyes shut, desperately trying to stop the tears from returning.

"A shinobi must never show their tears, Sasuke-kun."

"You know damn well that's only referring to crying in front of the enemy. Don't be annoying, Sakura."

The medic shook her head as she let out a choked laugh.

"But that's the rule of shinobi. We can't show our tears or weaknesses." She let her hands drop from Sasuke's chest. "I'm just a sorry excuse for a kunoichi."

Yanking her limp hand from her side, the Uchiha wrapped his other hand behind her head and pulled her face to his own. Pressing a stream of light kisses up her jaw, he stopped when he reached her mouth and stared into her glassy eyes.

"You're allowed to show emotions, Sakura. If not, you'll turn out like I did, and trust me, you don't want to go down that path."

"…Sasuke-kun…"

Taking a step away from her petite body, the Uchiha squeezed her hand and pulled her towards the couch. Laying down first, he tugged the girl into his side. Putting an arm around her body, Sasuke shifted to allow the medic to turn towards him.

Sakura reached a small hand to lightly stroke at his strong jaw. When had he begun to grow stubble? It seemed like just yesterday when they were genin fresh out of the academy. Curling towards the man, she allowed her body to relax and her eyes to close.

"Thank you."

Without a word in response, Sasuke dipped down to press his lips to hers in a chaste kiss. Moving his head to place on top of hers, he stroked her back, feeling the muscles underneath unwinding.

Shinobi rule number twenty-five: A shinobi must never show their tears. However, there are some exceptions.


End file.
